Trey Pearson: I kind of wrote the song about a bunch of my friends back home - a group of our friends and one of my best friends who moved away. So the whole idea of it is just kind of embracing the time that we have together and what God's given us. And, for us as Christians I guess, just really knowing He put us on this journey together. So kind of making the most of it, y'know? So I think for whatever part of life you're in, whether it's graduating or a friend of yours is moving away, or moving into a new stage of life, whether it's marriage or something like that, I think we can all relate in that way. Kind of just making the most out of the time we have together because God has put us here on this journey together. So that's kind of the idea of the song.

Trey: Yesss! Soul Glow Activatur! Keep it real. From Family Force 5! Just got to know him and he's become a pretty good friend. And we were talking about collaborating and doing something goofy with our record. Just doing something fun. And we love what they do as a band, and we thought it would be cool for him to kind of put what he does into something we do. And so, he's doing a remix for the title track, our new single, "Best Night Of Our Lives," and it's kind of a dance, ghetto, sweet mix. We're excited! It's going to be awesome.

Trey: Yeah I think so! He's going to be laying down some guest vocals, getting a little stupid with us. It'll be fun! We haven't heard it yet. But it's going to be a part of a Special Edition or Deluxe Edition of our iTunes record. I'm not sure where all it'll get released to besides that, but it's going to be a part of that.

Trey: Yes, I believe so. At least starting out. That's the idea.

Trey: Yeah, definitely! I've always loved being able to collaborate with people, or get people that I love to come and be a part of what we're doing somehow. And back in the old school days, I got Matt Thiessen from Relient K before we really signed to Inpop or anything like that, he sang with me on a song we did. And even with our last record, having some of my old school influences like Brian McSweeney from Seven Day Jesus and Ian Eskelin from All Star United be a part of that record. It was really fun. So we'll see what happens. I don't see any whole remix records *laughs* happening in the future or anything like that, but it'll be fun to see what happens with this.

Trey: Yeah! Well, I have worked with three different producers. Back in the old school days, with the old Everyday Sunday, we did our records with an old label called Flicker Records - they're still around, but they got bought out by Provident Label Group - we did those albums with a guy named Quintan.

Trey: Mmmhmm! Then we got our ducks in a row with the same lineup we've had for a couple years now. Tyler and Kevin came into the band and we did our debut album with Inpop Records, Wake Up! Wake Up!, and Ian Eskelin produced that. And then for this new record, our second album on Inpop, we used Mark Lee Townsend, which we were very excited about.

Trey: We just really love everything he's done. Just from showing him the demos for the new record, and from talking to him about songs and what we wanted to do, we just felt he was the right fit for the direction we were heading in and what we wanted to become. He does all the Relient K records, or at least works on them to some degree. He's produced most all of them except for Five Score, which he still produced a few tracks on that. He's done the new House Of Heroes record, The Wedding, and he's just a great rock producer. We really wanted to get somebody kind of at the head of this thing that really understood the rock world and what we're trying to do that could really stretch us and help us take it to the next level. And he definitely did that.

Trey: I think just challenging us on typical things that maybe we kind of took for granted or might have overlooked as far as song writing and structure and arrangements. Just stuff like that. We just really feel like he wanted to take us to the next level in making this album really stand out as more mature without losing the energy and feel of being a rock album. If anything, it's the most rock album we've ever done. And so, to be able to do that and bring a maturity to it, and grow as songwriters in the recording process. It was awesome.

Trey: Well... *laughs* Yeah. One of my favorite songs on the record is only that way because of him kind of kicking our butts and making us work hard to get it to where it needed to be. Basically, we took this song to him called "Lies and Fear Go Hand in Hand" and it was in a totally different stage at the time. And he was pretty much like, "Ah, that's crap." *laughs* He didn't even like it. And we were like "Really?!" We were all self-conscious. He's such a good guy, though. I mean, he does it in such a loving way that's encouraging you. He might even like it, but he knows you can make it better. And so he just pushes you until you do. We knew that we could do this, so we just stayed in the studio and grinded it out and it ended up becoming one of my favorite songs on the album. That's just one small example I guess. *laughs* He was always looking at my lyrics and saying, "Does this make quite sense? Can you make it make any more sense? How can you convey exactly what you're trying to get across?" So it was from a musical standpoint, from a lyrical standpoint - How can we make this more interesting? And we'd look at each individual song and take what we had and say, "OK, this is good, but how can we make it the best it can be?" He did all the things you'd expect or hope a producer will do. So it really felt like, "Wow, we're really working with the kind of producer we've always wanted to work with."

Trey: Absolutely!

Trey: *laughs* "Lies and Fear Go Hand in Hand." Um... gosh. That song is about... *laughs* I don't want to be careful here. It's basically about people in my life, within the whole industry I'm in, and just other people in my life. You'll see people, and I'm sure we're all guilty of it to some degree, that say one thing and do something totally different. And, to that degree, I understand we're all quite hypocritical and we make mistakes and we fall short. But it's another thing to see people that directly say one thing and don't even care and go out and live a completely different way. And the thing is, you see all these people that blatantly just don't care that try so hard to cover it up and make sure other people don't find out about it because they're embarrassed about it. And I'm sure, to some degree, we've all done that at some point, but at the same time, it's like there's this point where we call ourselves out on it and say "hey, why are we here? What are we doing here? What's the point?" So this song is about seeing so many people say one thing with their mouth, and then go out and do something completely different. It's just like when you know if other people found out, you'd get called out on it. You'd have to answer for what you're doing. And so, for me, it's kind of like -- why am I doing this as a band? Is it because we want to get a bunch of fans and go rock out? And I mean, that's great! It's fun having people listen to your music and sing along, and everything like that, but at the same time, if that's all there is to it, it's completely meaningless! Especially for us as Christians to say, "If we really believe there is a God who's saved us and has done all this in our lives, why don't we show that in everything we do?" It's really a song facing a conflict, that feeling. And it's kind of owning up to it almost.

Trey: So many things have happened in my life where you've just seen stuff over and over. Every time stuff like this happens, where you see people say one thing and go do something completely different and blatantly not care - the reason that people hide it is 'cuz they're afraid of facing the consequences and that's the whole idea behind the name of the song. Lies and fear go hand in hand because people lie because they're afraid of exposing the truth. They're afraid of showing their real color. And to some degree we've all done that at some point and we hate that feeling. Why would you want to live that way? Whether it's being in a band or whether it's being with your friends or with your wife or whoever - how could you live in that state? All it will do is destroy you! So yeah, I guess there was a specific thing. We were playing a festival and afterwards, you see all these bands that claim to be Christians just go out and get completely trashed. Living this way that's totally against anything we believe as Christians. And you know this is wrong but you completely don't care about what you're doing. And if 90% of these people's fans knew how they were behind closed doors, their careers would be ruined. I'm not here to bash on all these bands. Like I said, I know we make mistakes, but it's just like hoping that when we do make mistakes, we learn from it and we turn from it. I've seen people in my life that have turned from those mistakes. There's been mistakes that I made that I've had to turn from. But, at the same time, it's hard to swallow when you see somebody who continues to live in it and doesn't care.

Trey: I'm excited about the songs, I'm excited about people hearing it. Touring it. One thing that's been really great with our Inpop debut, Wake Up! Wake Up!, has just been over the past couple years (almost two years since it's been out), is seeing more and more people coming to the shows and it's just been the most fun ever. I just really look forward to that with the new record - having people come out and sing along. Just seeing the crazy, various ways that God uses what we do to hopefully impact people's lives. I mean, that's why we're here. That's why we do what we do. It'll be a fun time to see where all He takes us and the opportunities we continue to get.

Trey: Yeah! Sure. "Under Your Thumb" is just basically a song about people who don't want to take responsibility for their actions, really. It's people who are always blaming everything on everybody else. And there's this point where we gotta say, "Hey, I'm responsible for what I do whether it's my relationship with God or how I treat people or what I get in life." Y'know? You can't go through blaming everything that goes wrong in your life on somebody else. And always coming up with excuses. It doesn't mean it doesn't stink when things go wrong, but I think there's this point of taking responsibility for who you are. That's kind of the whole idea. And I think that goes in personal ways and spiritual ways just in the fact of it's up to us to decide if we're going to live for God and serve Him or not.

Trey: I don't think any one particular thing like some of the songs might be. It's kind of like when you have no answer to a situation, whether it's how you're going to get through it or what you're supposed to do, seeing how God can do the craziest things by *there's a knock at the hotel room door* coming in and saving us from that situation and it's very much a vertical song in that sense of... uh... *Michael Tait pops his head in the door* What a rock star!

Trey: What's up, rock star? *Tait jumps on top of Trey and hugs him*

Michael Tait: I love white people! White people are great!! *laughter*

Trey: Tait! Sings for DC... I mean, the Newsboys! *Tait starts leaving the room, then comes back*

Michael Tait: *With his hands around Trey's neck* One of my favorite voices! Right here. True story! I raised him. Worked on his first record.

Trey: He raised me. I was not raised by wolves, I was raised by Tait. *laughter*

Michael Tait: My brother man! *leaves the room*

Trey: Oh my goodness. *laughter* What were we talking about? *laughter*

Trey: "Where I Ended!" Where did I end this? That's the question! *laughter* Oh goodness... That's great... "Where I Ended." Like I said, it's a song about when you get to a place of not knowing what you're going to do or maybe you hang on to things too long, or maybe you try to control the situation too much. When you choose to end you controlling the situation, you can let God take over. It's very much an unconventional worship type song in the sense that I'm singing it to God. It's very vertical in that sense, but it's not really like a churchy sing-a-long worship kind of song I guess. I mean everything we do, obviously, we're called to do it as an act of worship, but in this song in particular, it's more in that vertical sense of talking about my relationship with God seeing how He can do the most amazing things by coming in and saving us when we allow Him to.

Trey: It's been good!

Trey: Sure! Yes, a little bit, but at the same time, she's super supportive of what we do. I've been touring since I met her, so it's nothing new for her really, except that it is nice that, obviously, we get to spend more time together when I am home. And she gets to come out with us every once in awhile, which is really new. And it's fun. All the guys in the band are like family so it's really easy and works well with being flexible with her coming and everything like that.

Trey: All kinds of things. The other day we were on the road, in Atlanta I think, and we were just getting ready to head to the next city on a Sunday morning. We didn't really know where to go for church, so we just had our own church service together at the hotel. And we were studying in 2 Corinthians chapter one about God's comfort and this one really cool thing that's super challenging for me is Paul saying to the Corinthians, "When I'm in distress, it's for your comfort. When I'm comforted, it's for your comfort." And I just thought it was such a cool idea to be willing to love people in a way [like that]. He also says, basically, that he would do all things to be who he needs to be to help these people. When you're willing to sacrifice yourself in that way, where you can learn to be content in all situations, where you can learn to be happy no matter the circumstances, it's OK to be distressed for someone else's comfort. And to try to learn to live and love in that way is definitely something that we just all found very challenging. A way that we want to be as a band and personally as friends, just with other people, like in any situation with anybody that you're going through, how can we do whatever it takes to bring comfort to that person? Because God also talks about how He's the God of comfort and He can bring comfort to us in any situation. And that's just a neat feeling to know that God's always there in that way.